The eruption
of protests and rebellions following the murder of Minneapolis
resident George Floyd sent shockwaves across the country; indeed,
around the world. Suddenly, in the context of a pandemic unlike
anything that we in the USA have witnessed since 1918-1919 and an
economic collapse worse than the Great Recession, masses of people
were on the move challenging the profound racial injustice
demonstrated by law enforcement abuse against racialized populations
and, specifically, against African Americans. “Black Lives
Matter” became the renewed battle cry and, when it met with the
response that “All Lives Matter,” the correct refrain
was, all
lives should
matter, but the reality of the USA is that Black lives don’t
matter.
And, as we swept away the racial fog that surrounds so much in the
USA, we discovered that other racialized populations were also
regular targets of extrajudicial violence, including Native
Americans, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Asian Americans.
The moment in
which we live is explosive because of the fusion of crises, including
but not limited to the Covid19 pandemic, the economic collapse, the
environmental catastrophe, extrajudicial violence targeting
racialized populations, and a growing right-wing populist movement
with a crypto-fascist President as its main spokesperson. In this
situation, organized labor - the trade union movement - has been
inconsistent; sometimes paralyzed; and at other moments outspoken.
What it fails to acknowledge, let alone address, is that the
political polarization of the USA has placed us in a situation that
some commentators have described as a “cold civil war.”
How should we
understand the term “cold civil war”? It means that the
social, economic, and political contradictions in the USA have been
brewing in such a way that there is a polarization undermining a
so-called mainstream consensus within the democratic capitalist
framework. It does not necessarily mean that we are in pre-civil war
situation, i.e., it does not necessarily
mean that we are on the verge of a military conflict, but it does
mean that the antagonisms have bubbled to the surface and have moved
outside of the generally accepted bounds of democratic capitalist
politics. This includes the increased use of extrajudicial violence
by the authorities as well as by paramilitaries. To be clear, the
polarization that has emerged is between forces that are advancing
right-wing, irrationalist authoritarianism, on the one hand, and
those who favor democracy (subject, of course, to wide
interpretations).
None of this
should surprise us since the Republican Party has shifted
dramatically, since the late 1960s, in a rightward direction and,
particularly beginning in the 1990s, flirted more and more with
right-wing populist movements as a means of driving forward their
neo-liberal economic agenda and their anti-20th century social and
political agenda.
Though the
Republican establishment seems to have thought that they could
control the right-wing populist forces, much like Dr. Frankenstein
thought that he could control the monster, it has largely lost sway.
The complete collapse of the traditional Republican establishment in
2016 in the face of the Trump juggernaut illustrates this point.
We now have an
Administration that flirts with open fascists; articulates lies and
other forms of irrationalism; and has threatened to ignore the
results of the November 2020 election should they lose. All of this
lays the foundation for, quite possibly, a series of confrontations
between pro-democracy forces, on the one hand, and on the other, both
pro-Trump forces of the State as well as pro-Trump mass movements and
militias.
What must be
done?
(1) Organized
labor must pull its collective head out of the sand:
Most immediately there must be a recognition of the toxic danger
contained in the growing right-wing populist threat. While it is
clear that the majority of the USA, including the majority of the US
working class, has no interest in right-wing populism, it is also the
case that right-wing populism represents a major threat to the
working class movement specifically, and the USA more generally.
Organized labor needs to speak openly about this threat and not act
as if this is not a “labor issue”.
(2) Organized
labor must advance a mobilization process that engages its members in
supporting efforts to rethink, restructure, reallocate, and
demilitarize law enforcement:
This is not just a matter of transforming local police departments
but also must include addressing the barbaric treatment of documented
and undocumented immigrants and refugees by ICE and the Border
Patrol. US authorities are treating migrants as cattle, completely
ignoring the fact that many of these migrants are at our borders
precisely because of the role of the USA in undermining the
economies, environments, and sovereignty of their respective
countries of origin. Contrary to the right-wing myth that these
migrants are coming to the USA in order to have so-called anchor
babies - as opposed to the industry created to facilitate just this
for many East Europeans - migrants from the global South are arriving
at our borders largely because of the damage done to their homelands.
(3) Organized
labor must put into place pro-democracy volunteer brigades in
preparation for the November election:
We need volunteers who will assist with voter registration; mobilize
in large numbers should law enforcement and right-wing militias show
up at polling places in order to intimidate voters; block the
right-wing from challenging legitimate voters and ballots; and lay
the groundwork for massive civil disobedience should the Trump
administration attempt to forestall the elections and/or refuse to
recognize the results.
(4) Organized
labor must join hands with other social movements in creating a broad
front for democracy and against repression:
Organized labor cannot do any of this work alone. It must reach out
to potential allies with a focus on opposing the growth of
authoritarianism. The ‘price of admission’ to this front
or coalition must be low, i.e., we need to recognize that there are
many things around which we shall disagree, but the time has come to
join hands in the name of defending AND expanding democracy.
We may not get
a second chance.
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